I thought I’d take a moment from my usual posting to talk about this big ol’ world of blogging. Now I would classify myself as a hobbyist blogger, someone who does this whole posting thing for fun…for now at least.
Because after signing up for the South Blogger’s Meet-Up and actually mentioning my blog in interviews and CV’s/Application Forms for placements, I’m seriously considering how much I value my blog and whether I can actually stand back and call it marketable.
Which also makes me question how serious should I be taking this whole world of blogging?
Should I put it out there I’m looking for advertisers? Should I start using AdSense? How are my stats doing? How well am I networking? How much do I do to ‘sell’ my blog out online and in person? Is my content marketable and are people reading it? How much am I posting? Should I be looking for more blogging events to go to? And if I go to them so I have to make business cards? Because isn’t that what my blog is becoming? A business?….
blah blah blah…
And this is when I start panicking. I start looking at other bloggers who have follower numbers in the hundreds and thousands and feel a little disappointed in my own blog. They say you should forget about all this, that views and follower counts mean nothing. But it’s easier said than done.
I’m not gonna lie I’ve been in a bit of a blogging funk the past week and the whole time I was worried about what posts am I going to put out? Am I commenting and networking enough to warrant comments back?
When I’m away from my blog I find myself worrying about it. Which hasn’t been the best thing being back at University, upping my hours at my part-time job, socialising and also participating in NaNoWriMo this month. But I can’t help it. It seems when I’m not blogging I’m thinking about ‘whether I can take a photo or mention this on a post?’. It can drive a person up the wall.
But last night I really had a stop and think about all this? Is it really worth the worrying? I remembered the initial reason I started up my blog, not to gain a revenue stream or have a massive following. But to just express myself, some of my first posts were about sharing experiences and writing about things I felt passionate about (at that time it was The Clothes Show and X Factor fashion lol what can I say :D). And I commented on other people’s blogs because I wanted to not just so they might hit me up and comment back.
Getting back to the main issue here and what I’m trying to say is it’s fine to freak out a little bit. It’s good to have a moment and think ‘Oh good lord my blog is terrible’ because it should refocus you. But after that initial freak out you need to step back and put it in the back of your mind.
Sure it’s nice to mention you have a blog and dream about one day making some money off it.
But right now? I needed to step back and get back to what I really loved about blogging when I started nearly a year ago now. I loved writing about fashion. I still do, but since then I also found some other loves with art, music, design and even just the web itself. It was all about content that pleased myself at the beginning and nothing else. And it’s the same for anyone else in a blogging funk.
What do you really enjoy about this whole world of blogging?
Is it the chance to express yourself, whether through fan-girling about something or having a moan? Then write, write, write.
Is it the interaction with other? Then go and take a trip away from your own blog and comment on other’s posts.
Whatever it is, just go out there and forget about numbers, forget about advertisers and forget about being professional and have fun. Worrying is going to do nothing except give me more frown lines, and God only knows I’m getting plenty of those from Uni as it is.
So breath deep with me fellow bloggers…Keep Calm, Freak Out….and then Carry On ;)